It’s that time of year again, with Christmas songs on the radio, corporate holiday parties planned, and twinkling lights decorating every nook and cranny of the office. It’s also the time of year when employees are most likely to use up those saved vacation days, often taking off several days to spend time with friends and family during the holiday season. For many businesses, this means that operations will nearly grind to a halt for almost the entire month of December. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. With the right technology and effort, you can continue to grow your business and hit the ground running in the New Year while other companies are still sluggishly recovering from their holiday feasts.

The most efficient way to maintain momentum over the holidays is to know who is available at all times. To do this, you will need to implement a time management system that allows you to track employee activities including vacation time. Once you know the availability of all of your employees in advance, you can structure projects around those who will be available. While you may not be able to complete the large projects that you tackle during your busiest seasons, this is a great time to bundle and complete those smaller, nagging projects that constantly take a backseat to your more grandiose initiatives.

But what if you have a large number of employees who all take off at the same time, creating periods of time where there will be absolutely no one at the office? If you know well in advance this will happen, or if there is a proven history of such large-scale absences at your office, consider giving everyone that time off. You can reconfigure your paid company holidays away from those less consistent, one-day company holidays that are not universally recognized, and give a larger chunk of time during the holidays, when most businesses shut down. Your employees will appreciate the ability to keep their PTO, and you will be able to decrease the number of “dead days” you experience over the year.

Happy holidays!